Thursday, March 16, 2017

I've made a couple of sets from the FlyBuys Madelinetosh, and some random bits in a blue/teal that's not finished quite yet.

I like this twisty pattern, which is basically 4x4 rib on 71 stitches, so that the rib shifts over one stitch every round.

I spent a bit of February sanding and painting a new little cubby for the kids, and made it some little woven curtains.

All I've done so far this month is finish these bright socks,

spin this greenish rambouillet/silk, called Allium

and work on my last NEWT project, which is a pair of colorwork socks called "Irish Dream". I've finished one sock (although sewing in the ends will probably take an hour) and I'm hoping I have time to finish this second sock in the next week.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

And writing this on March 2! Sorry I've been a bit slack over here, but lots of stuff has been made, for such a shorty month, and most of it only finished recently. :)

NEWT

For the third quarter of my Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test :) I made up the pattern "Green Memories". It's a colorwork hat, with matching armwarmers in three of the hat colors. I used Madelinetosh Pashmina for the grey, but the other colors were a set (Lorna's Laces String Quintet) in a colorway called "Newt's Suit". (It's based on the colors he was wearing in the movie "Fantastic Beasts..."). They're a little big on Byron, but he does the serious pose so well... hehe

Last thing to do for the NEWT is a pair of colorwork socks, which I'm going to start next, when I've finished the socks I'm on.

SOCKS

Got out the CSM in the middle of the month, and in one afternoon, cranked 1500 yards of sport weight sock yarn. (Don't have much of that; wish I could trade my fingering weight for lots of it, though!). Then, as I flunked out of CSM school ;) I had to handknit on the toes, cuffs and heels.

These green ones, from yarn I dyed in Jan... hmmm... it occurs to me now that I haven't been here for quite a while. I did make some things in January, too. Here's January's dyeing and February's socks from it. Basically, I just threw it into a pot of green and sprinkled on a bit of blue and yellow...

Then I finished up these ones. These are maybe my favorite for the month, made of Trekking 6ply, so nice and tough, with the heels and cuffs in a different colorway of the same yarn.

Also made socks from that heel yarn :)

Then I knit these ones. Handmaiden Casbar. Merino/cashmere/nylon that I've had in my stash since 2011. It's very silky-feeling, and thinner than the other "sport weight" yarns. I tightened the tension on the CSM a click, but they still seem like socks that would wear holes in a month.

Oh well. They can be my "sitting on the couch" socks :)

They're very long, but I'll just bunch them around my toasty, warm ankles like this.

I haven't finished the 5th pair, yet. They're eye-searing pink and orange (I was originally planning colorwork with black for this yarn) but why not? They'll be in my shoes. lol.

I did make Zac some new socks, though, which he wanted for his birthday. Dyed and knit back in January. Inside 24 hours. You know, just for the challenge.

And I made these ones for Nathan's birthday, handknit from top to bottom. Two strands held together, so it should have been much quicker than it was!!

SPINNING

These two were made from two bumps of SASF, both of which were a green and purple mix that I couldn't see myself using. (Love David's fibre, but green and purple? Not for me.) However, it finally occurred to me that I could just pull the purple/blue bits out of both, and leave the green/blue bits for another skein. Worked great, almost 50/50!

Also split up a very brightly-colored skein that I wasn't sure how to spin into mini skeins of different colors. As the original colorway was called "Hell Broth" (from Macbeth), I called my mini skeins "Wool of bat, tongue of dog, eye of newt and toe of frog". hehe.

Tried to spin thickly, but still got pretty much 3ply sport weight.

This one I didn't like much. I love the "Primordial" colorway, but for the class I had to spin a 2ply. I'm not so good at those, for some reason. Maybe it needs a bit more twist...?

And for Quidditch, I spun up some more thick Nply, that ended up... maybe DK weight.

There were a few other projects in there, mostly things for the Soup Bus. Might add them to the collection for next time! :)